Orange Calls For War On Mice

As It Planned An Assault, The County Asked The Governor To Declare A Mouse Disaster In The Lake Apopka Area.

October 7, 1999|By Kevin P. Connolly of The Sentinel Staff

The nightmarish mouse epidemic near Lake Apopka may soon become a disaster.

Orange County has asked the governor to declare the infested region near Lake Apopka a disaster area. That would release more than $1 million for a massive rodent-killing campaign.

Residents in northwest Orange County are fed up, and people in neighboring communities fear they're next. They want help.

Officials pledged Wednesday to launch immediately a two-part assault: a heavy attack in hardest-hit areas and a defensive line set up around the edge of the infestation.

The moves come amid fears the problem will worsen and spread into neighboring Lake and Seminole counties as the rodents approach one of two annual peak breeding seasons.

``We just know we need help before this thing really explodes,'' said Wilbur Gary, an assistant to Orange County Chairman Mel Martinez.

Martinez asked Gov. Jeb Bush to help clean up the entire mess.

``Yes, the governor is concerned about this issue,'' Bush spokeswoman Lucia Ross said. ``But as far as being a disaster area, I haven't received that request yet, and I don't know if the governor has received that request yet.''

Mice have gained a foothold in about 25 square miles north and east of the lake in Zellwood, Plymouth and Apopka.

Complaints suggest the mice may have spread into an area twice as large, covering 50 square miles from Tangerine to Ocoee and 10,000 homes.

Ross said she was told the state Department of Health was to act on parts of a $1.6 million battle plan proposed by local officials.

``As it stands now, [parts of the plan are] supposed to be implemented immediately,'' she said. ``I don't know how much will be funded, and I don't know where it's coming from.''

The first attack would target the hardest-hit areas, about 3,000 homes clustered along U.S. Highway 441. Each home will be surrounded by dozens of traps and containers of special mouse-killing poisons.

The poison, Quintox, triggers heart attacks in mice. But it's not passed up the food chain, and it won't contaminate the ground.

The county isn't waiting for the help to arrive. Already it has stepped up mowing on public lands in the area, removing mouse hiding places. It's also bolstering code enforcement to remove debris from properties.

The second part of the battle calls for reinforcing the outer edges of the infestation with traps and poisons. But not all the grass will be cut short.

Some will be allowed to get knee-deep, luring the mice to its shelter. But it will be a deadly hiding place, packed with even more poisons and traps.

There also is a request pending to help local nurseries.

The county plans to use its mosquito-control workers to do much of the work. The Orange County Health Department wants to recruit volunteers to help.

``If we can create an army of people out there, that will work,'' said Bill Toth, an epidemiologist with the Health Department.